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I want some advice on using banking sites on public computers. Sometime I travel out and does not carry my laptop with me. I can see this cyber cafes where I can access net. I had not yet used any of my banking website on this public pc but just want to confirm whether it is safe or not. I have to recharge my phone, transfer money and make some payments through net banking.
I will not recommend you use banking sites on public computer. Carry a netbook with you. It is portable. Add a good antivirus and then make payment on it. You can carry a 3G usb dongle with you that allow you to access internet anywhere you want.
It is risky because public computers are not completely safe. They can have virus,malware, keyloggers, etc. I never do that. If you did this then change your password right-now. There are many other secure way of using a public pc. The first thing you can do is make a bootable live Linux usb or cd. Boot the system through that pen drive. And then surf through internet. Here you are operating system from your pen drive and accessing site through it. Linux is not vulnerable like windows. It is safer and give you secure access. A bootable usb offer you to carry a complete operating system on your pen drive. You can move with it easily. The netbook advice is good. Because you will have your own personal system. And through a wireless internet dongle you can also use internet anytime you want.
Public computers are never safe. Most of them never use antivirus and also have key-loggers. So if you want to loose your password then you can go ahead on your risk. Better avoid it. There are maximum chances of having a account hacked.
You can use them for chatting and for net surfing. That's all. But using them for banking and professional use is not recommended. Your system can get hacked easily causing major issue with your data and banking stuff. So do not play with the same. If you checkout all security articles carefully then you will find that no one advice you to use sensitive information on public pc. Loosing password is very common on it. If you are confident enough that the public pc which you are using does not has a key logger then you can simply go ahead browsing in private model. Browser like Firefox and Opera offer you a incognito mode through which none of your history and passwords are saved. When you exist the browser everything is lost. Still security is always a big concern when it comes to public pc.
Never use them. It is not at all recommended. Never use internet banking logins and credit card on public system. Your data can be misused by any. Even banking website do not recommend you to do the same.
You can access your banking site on public hotspot. Here the protection lies from the site part. If you are accessing a secure website which has HTTPS stuff then you are safe to access it. But you cannot identify whether the network or pc which you are using has a keylogger. This keylogger record all your key strokes. And that is the place where you have chances of loosing your password. So there is nothing you can do. There are hardly few wifi network which can be counted as secure. Now there is one thing you can try out. For that you have to learn a bit about vps. You can buy vpn network and use it to access your important site from any place. You can connect to the vpn network and through access your website. Many banking site give you virtual keyboard. So use them instead of the physical one. In this way even if the keylogger is active your password will not leak.
Major issue of public hotspot is phishing website. There are tons of fake website that look like banking sites and they capture your password and important login details. One thing you can do is use your own personal pc at public hotspot.